Barvarian Blast

I woke up at 6:45 to go to the bathroom, and Isang woke up when I got back to the room. We were both really hungry, so we biked to Perkins. Man, I didn't know I could fit so much food in my stomach! Since we were so close to Target, we just had to stop by...or at least I did and Isang was a good sport. I decided baking would be too much of a hassle, so I opted to get a cardigan instead. Haha. Not very practical given this heat here in New Ulm, but oh well, it's cool in the morning.

We biked the lovely trek back to the school to shower, and I did a load of laundry. Isang and I decided to bike back into town and maybe check out Schell's brewery. En route, we biked into Andy and Janet. Man, Andy is always on the go! He found his own personal tour guide on bike- George, who is an 87 year old local and still kickin'. We decided to join and biked by the Barvarian Blast slash Polka Fest. It was only 10:30 by this point, so nothing was really going on yet. Sam is entered in a Sauerkraut eating contest at 7:30 tonight, so I will definitely be there for that! We decided to follow George to the cemetery. I'm not really a huge fan of visiting cemeteries, but it was pretty interesting. Some of the gravestones had 'killed by Indians' engraved on them- it's kind of an interesting perspective to take. The Battle(s) of New Ulm actually resulted in more casualties than the Battle of Little Big Horn or Custer's Last Stand. Fun little fact that you don't learn about in elementary school history class.

After the little tour from cute old George, Isang and I decided to go back tot the cafe we were at yesterday to get food and use their wifi. We were there for a little over an hour and then realized that we could make the 12:45 showing of Despicable Me. We bumped into some other big riders who had the same idea- it's nice to sit in a cool, dark room with cushy seats for two hours. The movie was actually really cute; it's more my style than Inception. Look at me being all up to date with my movies!

After the movie Isang and I went back to get our bikes with the intent of biking to the brewery, which was back by Target. However, once we walked out into the sauna outside, our plans changed. We stopped in many air-conditioned stores along the way and stopped for some 1919 root beer floats. I also got another pin of Hermann the German for my collection and some super glue to glue the cap on my medicine shut so that it doesn't leak anymore. We biked/walked back to the dorms to nap, do laundry, and maybe wash our bikes until it's time to head over to the festival. It's too hot out to hang out there until 7:30 for the eating contest.

I'm currently in the air-conditioned common room, and I think I'm going to take a nap. I'll try and update a little more later tonight. I'm sure you are all very excited to hear about how Sam does in the contest! I might even enter the coloring contest if they let me- the flyer said ages 3-12. Struggle.

Much love,
Suzanne

-UPDATE-

I didn't find the coloring contest, but SAM WON THE SAUERKRAUT EATING CONTEST!!! What a rockstar!